NEWS: Avian Bird Flu Pandemic Fear as Second Nurse is Diagnosed

A second nurse in Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi has been struck down with the Avian Bird Flu. The 41 year old nurse was admitted after suffering high fevers, coughing and lung infection. A 26 year old male nurse caring for the same patient, who also has infected other family members after eating raw ducks blood, was earlier confirmed to have caught the H5N1 strain of the virus.



The virus is so far limited to clusters rather than the random infecting of people that is feared by an outbreak of the mutated strain of the virus. It seems the time is getting closer of the mutation that will set off a pandemic of which many countries worldwide are stockpiling anti biotics and vaccines to try and combat the outbreak.

Despite the slaughter of millions of birds in the region, the virus continues to infect patients in a country where the residents often consume raw blood products from poultry.

Two new human cases of bird flu emerged Wednesday in Vietnam, both elderly relatives of others hit by the virus, a worrisome cluster of cases that's raising concern the H5N1 virus is becoming more adept at spreading from human to human.

One of the new cases involves an 81-year-old man with two infected grandchildren -- one of whom may also have infected a nurse who cared for him.

The fact both new cases showed no signs they were infected add to concerns the true number of human cases of avian influenza could be far higher than officially reported.

"It's certain there are cases we're missing, and probably a significant number," Dr. Peter Horby, a medical epidemiologist with the World Health Organization in Hanoi, told CanWest News in a recent interview.

www.canada.com...


This is a new angle on the virus with people testing positive showing no symptoms of the illness.

In some ways, this is old news. ...My sense is that info is being released because the epidemic is getting hard to cover up. This is from another article here on ATS:


In the USA, the "Key Facts" about bird flu available from the CDC are re-written with regularity and generally contradict other available sources. See: March 8, 2005 Version: CDC "Key Facts" about bird flu

For example, the current CDC fact sheet says H5N1 bird flu doesn't cross species barriers. In fact, H5N1's ability to cross species is what makes it so dangerous. Over the past few years, H5N1 has been reported in birds, pigs, cats and other animals.

September, 2004: Re: Bird flu

"It seems this virus (H5N1 bird flu) is quite versatile - it appears in pigs, cats and other animals, so it can appear in places that were never thought about before." Omi said. "This virus is very infectious," he added. (Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific)

....................

Fearful expert tells of bird flu in pigs

Presumably to protect the nation's poultry industry, the CDC skims right over the fact that bird flu is present in the meat of infected birds, including ducks and chickens. The CDC "fact sheet" also neglects to mention that this flu strain can present with gastrointestinal symptoms, and without other "typical" flu symptoms.

We report the first case of avian influenza in a patient with fever and diarrhea but no respiratory symptoms. Avian influenza should be included in the differential diagnosis for patients with predominantly gastrointestinal symptoms, particularly if they have a history of exposure to poultry.

Atypical avian influenza (H5N1). Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Jul;10(7):1321-4. Apisarnthanarak A, Kitphati R, Thongphubeth K, Patoomanunt P, Anthanont P, Auwanit W, Thawatsupha P, Chittaganpitch M, Saeng-Aroon S, Waicharoen S, Apisarnthanarak P, Storch GA, Mundy LM, Fraser VJ. Thammasart University Hospital, Klong Luang, Pratumthani, Thailand. PMID: 15324560

The CDC "fact sheet" also assures Americans that H5N1 bird flu has not entered the USA. However, without using molecular diagnostics on each and every person in the nation, such a claim legitimately cannot be made.

In fact, scientists are pleading with governments to use molecular diagnostics for accurate diagnosis. In March of 2004, researchers from the Neuroscience Research Institute in Peking recommended the use of molecular diagnostics towards the establishment of "systems of sensitive and fast detection methods as the first line of alarm." Such systems have not been created or implemented anywhere in North America.

See: The necessity of molecular diagnostics for avian flu

As with Mad Cow, bird flu could be epidemic and no one would ever know - because the testing protocols are totally inadequate.

H5N1 bird flu is now known to spread person-to-person, and to be asymptomatic in some individuals. This means that unknown to anyone, some people might be carriers.

Relatives of avian flu patients have asymptomatic cases

Mar 9, 2005 (CIDRAP News) – Two relatives of avian influenza patients in northern Vietnam have tested positive for the virus without being sick, according to reports from Vietnam today.

............

researchers have recently described several instances of person-to-person transmission.

Now there is evidence that in rare cases it can spread from person to person.

Bird flu can be transmitted in a variety of different ways: between animals, birds and humans via physical contact or droplets in the air; in feces and urine and therefor, in water and soil and from contaminated surfaces. More to the point, the virus apparently can survive an unusually long time without a host.

For example, British microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington is urging a ban on poultry feathers from China because of possible contamination with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Feather pillows may carry Asian bird flu

Poultry feathers imported from China to make products such as pillows could carry the avian flu virus, says a British microbiologist who is urging the British Government to consider banning them.

see; WHO Pushes for Bird Flu Vaccine Production

The other bit here is that the nurses (the front line of any health care systems) are getting hit.

Why?

1) They are not following adequate isolation procedures (If this trend continues then you can rule this one out)

or ------Scary

2) They don't have an adequate isolation regime/protocol for them to follow so the nurses are getting infected

or--------Scariest:

3) They have a good protocol and it does not make a differnece

Number 3 is the one we really need to worry about.

This is the type of thing that scares me. Nuclear war does not really scare me because were I live it means instant death for me but a disease that spreads from one person to another through the air is another story.

sofi

"The necessity of molecular diagnostics for avian flu "

this link is broken.

www.abc.net.au...


The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the bird flu virus may be changing into a form that humans can pass on.

The WHO is worried that bird flu, which has killed 47 people in Asia, could mutate into an easily spread form that sparks the next influenza pandemic.

The organisation has identified a cluster of human bird flu cases among relatives and possibly health workers in Vietnam.

"Such cases can provide the first signal that the virus is altering its behaviour in human populations and thus alert authorities to the need to intervene quickly," the WHO said in a statement.

Raw ducks blood? Ewwwwww... That sounds worse than the duck intestine I had last night, but I'd take duck intestine over cow stomach anytime. Sometimes that pig intestine makes me wanna puke though.

Chinese eat many things but they don't get bird flu............yet